LUCKY THIRTEEN

"Amon, what about the others?"

Robin asked the question hesitantly as Sakaki trudged towards the door, lowering her voice so the man would not hear. Too bad she hadn't been quiet enough. Brett's keen ears heard the teenage witch from the other side of the room.

"Yes, what about the others?" he asked defiantly.

The former hunter studied those gathered. Robin had a point, a good one. All of that ragtag band who had borderline kidnapped Sakaki were powerfully dangerous witches. There was Nycole, the empathic telepath, with the power to sense people's emotions and thoughts, in addition to affecting them, speaking without words. Brett had demonstrated an amazing skill and control with flame. There was Bear who seemed to be telekinetic, and Geoff who held sway with the air and the very winds themselves. Raven held the ancient craft of a powerful runemal, a jack-of-all-trades so long as they regarded the old runes, it seemed. Amon wasn't entirely sure what the silent swordsman was capable of. And Kathain? Amon wasn't entirely sure if he believed in her supposed gift to see the future and all aspects of time.

Brett seemed to dance towards them, lilting on cocky steps. "What about us, Amon?"

The hunter fingered the trigger of his gas gun, resisting the urge to fire off a witch-killing slug right into Brett's chest. He knew he mustn't. If Amon pulled that trigger, he would have ignited another battle. For the moment, the witches seemed to be peacefully allowing Karasuma, Robin, and Amon to take Sakaki home, or, at least, to a safe location. Amon assessed the risk, looking to Nycole, Kristo, Bear, Raven, and Geoff. Even without Brett's fire craft, that band remained too powerful, still too evenly matched to Robin's Craft. Amon had Sakaki and no other reason to fight or take such a stupid chance. The man quelled his anger and annoyance at the snot-nosed punk before him.

"You are witches. You should be hunted." Amon squeezed his fists, straining to keep under control. "You will eventually be hunted if you keep attacking people."

"Attacking people?" Brett shouted. "That's bullshit, and you know it!" He sharply pointed at Amon. "The marks that ended up on you were a curse, magic only activated by someone's fucking around." The fire elemental's eyes seemed to flicker a dark flame. "You could only get marked by those if you breached the sanctuary of Nocturne, which you-" He slammed the finger into Amon's chest angrily. "Did."

"And the others?" Karasuma reached into her coat for the gas gun, but avoided pulling it out. "Did you attack them for the same reasons?"

Brett laughed. "The curse attacked them. A thief. A traitor. A mugger. A pickpocket. Two molesters. A would be rapist. A spy. And one dumb ass hunter who dared to attack us in our own home."

Robin blinked. "You…. You only acted out of self defense."

"Yes," the fire elemental snarled. "The marks only acted as a warning and wore off based off of the crime committed."

The teenager looked to her former partner. "Amon?"

"They are still witches," the hunter said point blankly, turning to the door.

Brett jumped in front of him, throwing a hand out to each side of the doorframe, blocking the hunter's path. "Remember this, Amon, for as long as you live- and I hope it's not fucking long if you're going to continue to be this idiotically stubborn- that we are PEOPLE before we are witches."

"That doesn't change what you are, now," Amon replied.

Brett chortled. "What? Look at us, Amon." The hunter gave a casual glance over his shoulder. "No! I mean look at us. REALLY look at us." The fire elemental actually went as far as to forcibly push the startled hunter. "Nycole. When she first discovered her gifts, she couldn't figure out whose emotions she was feeling, her own or someone else's. And, when she accidentally started to invade other people's minds, her family practically disowned her."

Karasuma flushed, feeling a sudden wave of embarrassment shudder through her. Miho remembered what it had been like, how hard it had been to deal with her empathy and her ability to scry when it first surfaced. It had been hell, living hell, sleeping hell, waking hell, every sort of hell it could possibly have been. And her hell seemed endless. Everything Miho touched, everyone the woman came into contact with, sent uncontrolled shivers of emotions, for the good and bad, riveting through her heart and mind.

"Geoff used to shatter glasses whenever he got even the slightest bit pissed," Brett went on, pointing to his friend. "And Sakaki? When he first awoke, he couldn't even hear himself think. The spirits were too loud and just went in and out at will." Haruto looked down, ashamed, but knowing it was the truth. "The just wouldn't shut up. They still won't. But he's learning."

Amon turned to his former partner. "Is this true?"

"Yes." Haruto nodded solemnly, like a child caught misbehaving.

Brett gestured to Kathain. "Show him." She blinked. "Show him, please?"

The girl subconsciously felt at the edges of her arm warmers, as if afraid to take them off. Sakaki had never thought anything of them. Arm warmers were just an everyday part of goth apparel. They were like long gloves, with all of the fingers hacked off. All four of the fingers were cut together as one, while the thumb was cut off separately. In Kathain's case, she seemed to prefer these, made of black cotton, with a long line of eyehooks, like those on a corset, running up the side.

"Kathain, show them," Brett pleaded. It was no longer asking; it went beyond that.

Slowly, the girl slipped the gloves from her slender arms and held out her hands, displaying her wrists. Raised, white scars crisscrossed each of her wrists, slashed in various directions from many different angles. Some where deeper, while others were longer. Karasuma's heart, so vulnerable due to her empathic nature, bled for the young girl who had taken blades to herself so many times.

"When we met Kathain, she'd already tried to take her own life three times. Three times."

Robin shut her ears; she didn't want to hear the rest. "Stop…"

"No!" Brett's fire burnt brighter in his eyes, flashing within those blue spheres. "Since we've known her, she's tried four or five other times. I don't know…" The elemental shook his head. "I've lost count at this point. All because she had to watch terrible things before they happened, unable to do anything about it?" Brett got close, into Amon's face; the hunter could almost feel the heat of the elemental's breath upon him. "How do you think that is for her? To watch awful things happen to your friends?" The elemental's power rose; Robin?"

Amon frowned. "That does not condone a person's crimes."

"And you? Are you to be held unaccountable?" Nycole screamed. "You're going to take Sakaki away, to a place where people will do God knows what to him. You threaten us. And what?" The telepath snorted. "You're hiding a witch?" Nycole finally laughed. "Pot to kettle, you are BLACK!"

Amon had forgotten about the telepath/empath's little journey through his own mind. "That is none of you concern."

"Sonova-" Nycole snarled.

Kathain's voice cracked like a whip. "Enough!"

All eyes fell upon her. She was the slightest of all those attending, a mere whelp of a girl in the long run. She couldn't have weighed more than 110 lbs, but her words held the weight of the world. Kathain could stop traffic, war, time even with the merest of utterances. She was an oracle. It was her job to.

"Let them go," the precognitive ordered. Brett just blinked at her, but the girl said it again. "Let them go. They were going to leave peacefully, now let them leave."

"What?" Bear asked. "You can't be serious."

Kathain's hair stood on end. "I said let them go. This is not the way things should end… nor begin." Dread swirled within Robin at that last, cryptic statement. "Now, allow them to leave in peace and without any harm done to them."

Kristo gave the order, exerting his own authority, and it was followed. "Do it."

Brett shrugged and stepped out of Amon's way. The hunter strode out, never looking back to the startled little band of witches. Robin and Karasuma trailed behind him, their arms around Sakaki, trying to be comforting, but unsure really what to do. The witches stood still, frozen and locked in place by Kristo's law. They just stared in silence as the three walked down the drive.

Amon immediately took his place in the driver's seat as Karasuma climbed into the front passenger's seat, leaving the back to Robin and Sakaki. The younger man, Haruto, slipped into his chair and slouched down. Robin looked to him curiously, feeling a strange twinge in her heart, a sort of pang of sorrow. She wondered if Sakaki missed the people Amon had just forced him to leave.

"Sakaki…" she whispered.

"Leave me alone."

xxxx

"Kathain, how could you?" Nycole shouted at her friend, seething.

The precognitive raised her eyes, guiding her friend's attention to Kristo. The swordsman had taken his katana and his tonto in skilled hands, checking the blades before casting aside the sheaths. If he was right, Kristo wouldn't need them.

"What are you doing?" Nycole breathed.

The man brushed past her. "Going out."

"To do what?" At first, he didn't respond. "Kristo?"

He bolted out, into the night, into the dark and the shadows, enfolding them around himself and stepping into the deep, inky black.

"To get Sakaki back."

xxxx

Amon drove. He fell into the action of driving, letting each white stripe along the lanes bring the man some small comfort. Every six-foot line heralded another six feet away from that awful house and the people who lived therein. It felt better, easing both Robin and Karasuma as much as it did for Amon.

Sakaki, however, seemed to grow sadder and sadder with each passing mile. Karasuma glanced back at him, knowing the feeling was genuine. Sakaki truly missed them, missed those witches. His soul ached and cried out, reaching back for the supposed friends he had left behind. But Sakaki had gone willingly. No, for, as Miho thought back on it, Haruto only left the house to appease Amon and keep the hunter from harming the band. They had just forced him to leave his family.

"Sakaki…" Robin spoke softly to him.

"Leave me alone."

The teenager gaped before sitting back quietly, hurt by his anger.

Sakaki pondered what would become of him. Amon had taken him, but it wasn't as if the man could very well turn Haruto over to Solomon. Now, Miho, on the other hand, could have. She could have just handed Sakaki right over to whatever fate awaited. Even Amon didn't know exactly what to do with his former partner. Amon glanced back in the rear view mirror, checking on the male witch sitting in the back seat before returning his gaze to the road.

Something gleamed in the rear view for a moment. Amon ignored it, but he never should have. A blade cut through the darkness of the back seat, through the night and across the car, to the front seat, over Karasuma's throat, as another graced Robin's neck. Amon moved to slam on the breaks instinctively, but stopped himself before he could. If the man stopped suddenly, Karasuma and Robin would be thrown forward by their own inertia, cut in two by Amon's own foolishness and those shining, curved blades. A laugh broke out in the shadows of the car between Robin and Sakaki, where the blades seemed to stem from.

Kristo's husky voice bellowed in the night. "Let's talk, hunter."

xxxx

Didn't think I'd make it that easy for Amon, Robin and Karasuma? Of course not.